UB3RG33K

I seem to have an addiction to buying headphone, at last count I had over ten pairs that I used for different devices. I know I could simply use a single pair for everything, however some are tailored different, some for music, some for games, some for movies some for the gym, and some are portable…..I know, I have issues.

Ever since Sony announced these headphones, I’ve been tempted by them as they offered virtual surround 7.1 surround sound over bluetooth. This year, I must have been a good boy as Santa got me a pair for Christmas.

Although the headphone looks quite bulky, they are amazing comfortable and lightweight. Once they’re on, you can hardly tell you’re wearing them.

The controls (once you work out where they all are) are simple to use and quite intuitive and they also have a built in mic (which is apparently crystal clear).

These headphones work with the PS4, PS3 (via a dongle) and the Playstation Vita (via a cable). I’m a little unsure why they were unable to simply use bluetooth technology built into each of the consoles…..but I’m sure they have their reasons.

The sound quality is good, very good infact, they rival my Turtle Beach headphones, and pressing the VSS button on the headphones gives you a lot more depth to the audio. I was able to test this by playing God of War Ascension, and hear a noticeable difference switching from Stereo to 7.1 in both the standard and VSS modes.

A nice little additional feature that can be downloaded is the companion app. This will allow you to upload a custom preset to ‘slot 2’ on the headphones. This is simply a preset with treble/mid/bass set, but can help you listen to games/movies/music the way you want to listen. There are a number of pre made presets, and a handful for existing games eg Destiny, inFamous: Second Son, which do seem to sound a little better, but that might just me in my head. I guess my only criticism is the bass isn’t quite as deep as I’d like, even with the ‘Bass Boost’ preset, it was good, but not perfect, however still very clear.

I guess if there are any downsides with these, it’s the range. My PS3 and PS4 are both at floor level, and I tend to sit approximately three metres away with a table in the way. I’ve found that I have to sit up so I’m in direct line of sight of the dongle, otherwise they tend to cut out.

Apart from that, a great addition to my ever growing headphone collection

Over the post 6 months or so, I’ve become heavly involved with recording audio for a number of projects we work on, over at Fictionshed. If you listen back to the earlier podcasts (Fictioncasts), you’ll here me say, that you don’t need any specialised equiptment to record your voice, and a standard PC, with cheap mic will do…..the rest of this post will be me eating my words.

Due to getting a not the quality I wanted from the cheap headphone/mic combination, Tony kindly lent me a mixer and a couple of mics. This did improve the quality, however gave me some hard background noise.

In January, and with the ScutterCast in mind, I decided to splash out and get myself a MacBook Pro, as this was the only way I could find to do an enhanced podcast. The sound quality with the MacBook was a massive improvement, however the internal mic gave me a “roomy” type sound to my voice, which has been ok, however I needed something a little more direct.

After weeks of looking at the Samson C01U, the SL300 USB Studio Microphone and even the Samson G-Track, however Tony suggested I get the same as him, which was the M-Audio Fast Track Pro, as I already had the mic

Well Friday it finally turned up, and due to spending my Friday evening editing together the latest ScutterCast, I’ve only had chance to get to play with it today.

All I can say, is this thing is MINT ! It’s exactly the sound I’ve been wanting, it’s crisp, it’s clean, and NO background noise !

I now feel I’m set up to record the machinima project, this will also mean a lot less editing on the ScutterCasts, as I usually spend an age increasing the volume on my voice.